Manchester United's top 30 players of all time - Number 29

Manchester United’s success in the nineties owed as much to the unsung heroes as the star names, and one of the former makes it into our list of the club’s 30 best players in the form of Denis Irwin.

The left-back moved to Old Trafford from Oldham Athletic in 1990 and he would become a cult hero at both ends of the pitch in the years that followed.

By the time Irwin left United 12 years later he had featured 368 times for Sir Alex Ferguson’s side, scoring an impressive 22 goals in the process.

The defender’s dead-ball ability was an additional weapon for United at that time and opposing sides knew that any free-kick conceded just outside the area was likely to be taken by the Republic of Ireland international.

Irwin’s trophy cabinet is bulging with winner’s medals from a whole host of competitions and he left United having won seven league titles, three FA Cups, one League Cup, four Charity Shields, one Champions League, one Cup Winners’ Cup, one European Super Cup and one Intercontinental Cup.

He would later play 72 times for Wolverhampton Wanderers before ultimately hanging up his boots in 2004.

Vincent Ralph

After graduating with a degree in English Literature, Vincent completed a NCTJ-accredited qualification in newspaper and magazine journalism in 2005. He has worked for HITC for four years and is now Head of Editorial and Journalist Standards.